


Rainy Day Forts

by back2the_ocean



Series: Claire Hargreeves' Summer [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Light-Hearted, One Big Happy Family, Pillow & Blanket Forts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:13:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26485465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/back2the_ocean/pseuds/back2the_ocean
Summary: Claire has fun with the Hargreeves and they build a Blanket Fort on a Rainy day.
Relationships: Claire & Allison Hargreeves, Claire & Ben Hargreeves, Claire & Diego Hargreeves, Claire & Grace Hargreeves, Claire & Klaus Hargreeves, Claire & Luther Hargreeves, Claire & Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Claire & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy)
Series: Claire Hargreeves' Summer [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925470
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75





	Rainy Day Forts

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to @NerdyDalek9, @viridescentshade, and @cbuugdrama9 for being betas - they are honestly the best

It was a rainy day  — a complete downpour — weeks after the Tea Party. During that time, Claire had thoroughly wrapped the entire family around her small fingers. She knew it and she used it for her advance. Claire had certain activities she enjoyed doing with certain family members.

Five was right — Claire was absolutely brilliant and she shone in everything that she did. Vanya was delighted to be asked to tutor Claire with the violin. And it might have been only a couple of weeks but the entire family was extremely proud of the progress that Claire had made. They had even talked about getting together one night to allow Claire to play a small concert for them.

In the meantime, they had set aside a room for a formal music room. They had combined some of the smaller bedrooms, replacing the old, smaller windows with some new larger ones, allowing plenty of light to enter the room. They made sure it was near the main hallway, wanting the family to be able to hear them when they were playing. Luther and Diego had acquired and moved a grand piano into the room, and Claire, Vanya, and Allison were learning to play together. 

Diego was equally delighted when Claire started stalking him throughout the Academy, mimicking everything that he was doing. He was less pleased when Allison Rumored him to punch himself in the face following the incident of Claire and the knife. (Diego had taken the fact that Claire was following him around to mean she needed to know how to throw Diego’s knives. Five privately agreed but he knew better than to voice it aloud. Allison happened upon the two of them in one of the remote training halls and the yelling that erupted had dragged the rest of the siblings to witness their fight. Klaus had brought popcorn and Five had to restrain himself from joining his brother in eating some.) 

After the Rumor, Allison and Diego had left Claire with Mom and had taken a walk together. In the end, Claire had lessons in knife throwing three times a week and Diego now knew what it was like to be under a predator’s eye. Allison a hovering presence at all times.

Luther and Claire were building a greenhouse in the backyard. They had taken over some of the abandoned rooms that shared a wall with the backyard, knocking down a lot of those walls and extending that empty space with glass. The greenhouse was still very much in the planning stages but from what Five had glimpsed of their blueprints, it was going to be fantastic. During their planning and building sessions, Luther was pelted with questions about the moon. Diego had almost strained his eyes from his eye-roll but Claire was ecstatic. She had question after question, a never-ending stream that wanted to know everything there was to know about the moon. 

Five was astonished to know that Luther had actually completed quite a bit of college-level work in degrees in aeronautical and mechanical engineering with minors in physics in preparation for his trip. Five knew that Luther had wanted to go to the moon since they were knee-high to a grasshopper but Five didn’t realize how extensive Luther’s preparations were. 

And Luther really knew his stuff, managing to teach Claire (and the rest of them by osmosis) quite a bit of a variety of topics ranging from biology to astrophysics.

Ben had taken on the task of expanding Claire’s reading ability. Already at a high level for her age, Ben was reading her Austen, Morrison, Lahiri, Hosseini, Cisneros, Faulkner, Dickens… Ben was a fountain of knowledge on classic authors and new books worth the read. He spread it over a range of subjects and genres, men and women authors, POC and white equally. 

Ben had taken over the hour or two before lunch, reading aloud to the family. They had started it in random rooms at first but after the first week, the siblings had converted one of the smaller training halls into a new library. It was filled with soft surfaces and calming colors. They had wanted it to be as far from the harsh library and classrooms the siblings were used to growing up. They had moved in plush sofas, a multitude of beanbags, and armchairs that one sunk into. The walls were lined with bookshelves, carefully color-coded.

Claire was in charge of placing where the books go and Five knew she had a complicated system in place to organize her favorite books. 

Klaus and Claire continued with their weekly tea parties, sometimes suckering other family members into joining them, sometimes it being just them. They were also learning to bake and cook with Mom. Klaus was trying his best to stay sober this time around, not wanting to fall back into his bad habits. He had three years of sobriety in recent memory and Klaus knew he could do it. He had decided one of the best ways to distract himself was to spend time with his niece. 

Claire had asked how Mom had baked the chocolate chip cookies — the best she had ever had. Mom had been delighted to teach someone to cook — none of her kids had had the urge to learn and now she had two willing students. Klaus made an effort to attend every one of her lessons. It had made for a lot of inedible treats mixed among Mom’s delicious ones. There was now a point system keeping track of who had the most success in bypassing the nasty treats. 

Vanya was winning and nobody was sure how. 

Besides their tea parties and cooking classes, Klaus and Claire also put on little skits and plays. They weren’t on any sort of schedule — whenever one of them had an idea for one, they were acting it out for the family’s pleasure. Most of the time it was nonsensical, random nonsense that Klaus or Claire had dreamt up but sometimes they conscripted Ben to help write up some sort of script.

It was always a big affair when they were getting ready for a show — music blaring through the house, some props being dug out of a dark corner of the house, and makeup and costumes being put on. Then the entire family would gather and watch the actors. 

Five thought it was ridiculous and a waste of his time, but Claire lit up every time so he put up with it.

Claire and he did a little bit of everything. He was teaching her several languages, training her in self-defense, and because of a bit of trickery from Claire, he was also her clothing designer guinea pig. They spent many a day haunting the mall and local craft shops, and Five had a lot more appreciation for needles as a valid weapon of choice.

But today...today it was pouring cats and dogs. The scent of rain permeated their noses and the hot chocolate that Mom had made for them lulled them into sleepy contentment. They had all piled into Claire’s library after breakfast, it being the comfiest room in the house. Nobody had moved very much, Luther being the most active — changing the records out as they finished one. 

Mom, on her circuit of the house, had only laughed at them a little and promised to bring them up some sandwiches for lunch.

It was after lunch that some life had flowed back into the family. Claire had seemingly gained a second wind to match her determined look and when she stood up from her armchair, the seven siblings focused on her.

“I wanna build a blanket fort!”

And that set a fire under their asses. They were all up and moving, collecting blankets, pillows, support objects, and time-wasters. Soon enough, they had the softest and thickest blankets in the house hanging from various angles of the room, pillows lining the floor and providing backrests against various furniture pieces, and the time-wasters — novels, coloring books, board games, and card games — were spread out, waiting for their turn to be used. 

Diego had bailed early, leaving the room to gather up Mom with her snacks and Pogo with some of his reading material. But soon enough all ten of them were snuggled down into the greatest blanket fort ever made.

They spent the rest of the day within their fort. They left only for bathroom breaks—and in Mom’s case, to make dinner. 

And as the rain slowly tapered off, and the sunset lit the room up in various shades of pink and purple, and as his family slowly fell asleep, Five smiled.

He thought that this family was worth all the stress these wackos gave him, but as Diego shoved one of his smelly feet into his face, Five had to remember he chose to come back. He reminded himself that he loved them and didn’t actually want to harm them.

But maybe some light stabbing was just going to be his way of showing familiar affection.

Five was sure Diego would live — Five couldn’t be the first person to want to stab him.

He was happy, finally. It had taken much too long but he was finally back where he belonged. Surrounded by his family both new and old, surrounded by their love.

**Author's Note:**

> i wanted to write some more Claire Hargreeves so here we are.
> 
> according to one of my betas "fuck u dickens you paid-by-the-word crusty fuck, i will never forgive you for how shit tale of two cities is" which is the second best comment she's ever given me
> 
> come talk to me at my tumblr dcksdrgsdebutantes to talk and to see my character moodboards. also I have a tua discord - give me a shout if you'd like to join


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